From: Treseder KK, Lennon JT. 2015. Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics on land. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 79:243-262. Where O2 is absent or minimal, certain fungi can denitrify nitrate or nitrite, resulting in the production of N2O (Shoun et al. 2012). Denitrification is important because N2O is a particularly effective greenhouse gas, and because […]
Fungal traits
Fungal traits: Immobilization of nutrients
From: Treseder KK, Lennon JT. 2015. Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics on land. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 79:243-262. Nitrogen and P transporters. In order to directly acquire N, P, and other nutrients from the environment, fungi can construct membrane transport proteins (i.e., transporters or permeases) to take up relatively small organic compounds such as […]
Fungal trait: Depolymerization of nitrogen
From: Treseder KK, Lennon JT. 2015. Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics on land. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 79:243-262. Extracellular chitinase. Chitin is produced within the cell walls of most fungi (Rosenberger 1976) and it is also a primary component of arthropod exoskeletons. It consists of chains of N-acetylglucosamine, and is one of the more […]
Fungal trait: Phosphorus mineralization
From: Treseder KK, Lennon JT. 2015. Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics on land. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 79:243-262. Extracellular phosphatase. Organic P represents one of the more common sources of P in soil (Barrow 1961, Walker and Syers 1976). In many soil organic P compounds, P is bound to C via an ester linkage […]
Fungal trait: Breakdown of lignin
From: Treseder KK, Lennon JT. 2015. Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics on land. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 79:243-262. Fungi use extracellular peroxidases to oxidize lignin, ostensibly to obtain access to cellulose, N, and other nutrients that are physically or chemically protected by lignin in plant litter (Tien and Kent Kirk 1983, Martínez et al. […]
Fungal trait: Breakdown of cellulose
From: Treseder KK, Lennon JT. 2015. Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics on land. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 79:243-262. Cellulose is a major component of plant cell walls, and, accordingly, the most abundant biopolymer on land (Klemm et al. 2005). It is essentially a chain of glucose units that can be used by fungi for […]
Fungal trait: Melanin
From: Treseder KK, Lennon JT. 2015. Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics on land. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 79:243-262. Melanin is a condensed, randomly-arrayed, aromatic pigment that is located in the cell wall or extracellular matrix of fungi (Bell and Wheeler 1986, Butler and Day 1998, Free 2013). It broadly protects fungi from an array […]
Fungal trait: Cold-induced RNA helicase
From: Treseder KK, Lennon JT. 2015. Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics on land. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 79:243-262. Under cold conditions, RNAs can form stable tertiary structures that render them non-functional and prevent translation (Owttrim 2006). Certain cold-induced RNA helicases can unwind the RNAs or bind to them, which allows translation to proceed […]
Fungal trait: β1,3-glucan
From: Treseder KK, Lennon JT. 2015. Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics on land. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 79:243-262. Fungal cell walls provide protection from desiccation, freeze-thaw damage, and other environmental stresses (Bowman and Free 2006, Latgé 2007). Most fungal taxa construct cell walls with chitin (James et al. 2013); some can incorporate β1,3-glucan as […]
Fungal trait: trehalose
From: Treseder KK, Lennon JT. 2015. Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics on land. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 79:243-262. Trehalose is a compatible solute that improves stress tolerance in fungi via several potential mechanisms (Estruch 2000, Francois and Parrou 2001). First, it is thought to substitute for water molecules in cell membranes, protecting them from […]